Early 360 machines (Was: Front panel switches - what did they do?)

[Paul Berger]

On 2016-05-25 8:48 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 05/25/2016 03:31 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>
>> Those printers had an amazingly long life! They were first introduced
>> in 1959 with the 1401 computer, and, like I said, the brand spanking
>> new System 3 they got in ca. 1976 came with one! I wonder when IBM
>> stopped producing them?
> One of the lesser-known stories is that up until the 512 printer, CDC
> offered drum printers (501 mostly) for high-speed printing.  They were
> desperate to get a train printer on the market, but the prototypes would
> not last more than a few minutes before the print train flew apart.
>
> Somehow, they got hold of a 1403N1 and essentially took the print
> mechanism to pieces to learn its secrets.  I don't know if the 1403 ever
> worked right after that...
>
> --Chuck
>
The train printers where amazing technology but what often killed the 
trains was an operator who neglected to top off the oil reservoir, if 
the train went dry they would literally screech to a halt.   It was 
always interesting when someone put a carriage control tape on backwards 
or didn't lower the brushes, the first skip would empty the box and the 
paper would be all packed up under the cover.

Paul.